*Photo from Sportsnaut*
Lately, the Washington Nationals love their late game rallies. Nelson Cruz drove in a run, Yadiel Hernandez hit a two run double, and the Nationals defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates with a 3-1 victory on Tuesday night in Washington.
After rallying late on Monday for a win, the Nationals came in on Tuesday and did the same thing. Although the Nationals are practically out of the playoff race, they're on a nice little run as of late, having won 3 straight games and 6 wins in 10 games, and they got good pitching from Patrick Corbin.
Nationals manager Dave Martinez said of Corbin that "Tonight, he was good with everything. His fastball was electric. His slider was awesome. He worked ahead in counts. He fell behind and took one ball up for the home run, but other than that, he was money all day. If we get that every five days from Corbin, we’re going to be good."
The Nationals got on the board in the first inning, when Cruz grounded out. That scored Juan Soto, and put the Nationals ahead by a 1-0 score. It remained that way until the 6th inning, when Diego Castillo hit a solo home run for the Pirates to tie the game 1-1. In the 8th, Hernandez doubled into right field, driving in two runs and making it a 3-1 game.
Corbin got the start for the Nationals, turning in a vintage Corbin performance in a win, improving to 4-10 this season. Corbin allowed one run on 5 hits and two walks, racking up 12 strikeouts. Tanner Rainey then came on for the 9th, recording his 11th save of the season to close out the game.
Asked about his start, Corbin said there were "Some ups and downs, but I thought today I was able to stay on the attack, I was able to use both sides of the plate, the slider was good today, and I thought Riley did a great job back there. Just one of those nights where it seemed everything was clicking, and it just shows all the work that we’ve been doing to try to get to this point."
Getting the start for the Pirates was Jose Quintana, who had a strong bounce back start. Quintana allowed one run on 4 hits, striking out 6 hitters across 6 innings pitched. Wil Crowe came in out of the bullpen, taking the loss after giving up two runs in the 8th inning, dropping to 3-5 this season.
Crowe said after the game that "At the end of the day, end of the season, we're going to turn back and everything's gonna even itself out. If we keep playing hard, if we keep playing the right way, the ball is going to start doing what we need it to do and we're going to win some games."
Up next, the series concludes on Wednesday, with Paolo Espino taking the mound for the Nationals, and Mitch Keller starting for the Pirates.
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